Server Recording and Client Playback of Computer Network Characteristics

1. A method of recording network characteristics on a computer network having a server, comprising: receiving a request from a client on the computer network in several portions such that each portion has a header section containing header and tracking information and a body section containing network data; using a record module disposed on the server capture each of the several portions of the request from client to produce a custom-generated log file containing network characteristics, wherein the custom-generated log file is a data collector file that is separate from a standard server log file of the server, and the data collector file contains a log file, for storing header and tracking information, and a data file, for storing other types of data; caching the header information of an incoming portion of a request in memory until all headers for that request are received in order to separate the header section of the request portion from the body section of the request portion; piecing the header information from each portion together to generate the entire header for the request and then writing the header information to the log file once the entire header is received; and writing the body section of each portion of the request directly to the data file without being cached.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: searching for a cookie after all the header information has been received; and sending a response to the request that includes instructions to include the cookie with subsequent requests.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising setting an expiration time on the cookie such that the cookie lasts only as long as a user is logged on to the computer network.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising limiting a size of a data collector file, which includes the custom-generated log file, by at least one of: (a) deleting at least a portion of the data collector file; (b) moving at least a portion of the data collector file to another machine.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: maintaining a global socket counter such that each time a request is made the global socket counter is advanced; and maintaining a per socket request counter that tracks and logs a socket number and a number of times a socket has been accessed such that during playback an order and a socket from which the request was received can be determined.

6. A method of recording network characteristics, comprising: providing a server having an operating system; registering a filter residing on the server with the operating system; using the filter to capture network data containing the network characteristics; and storing the captured network data in a data collector file for playback; maintaining a global socket counter such that each time a request by a client is made the global socket counter is advanced; keeping track of whether the request is from a new socket or an open socket; maintaining a per socket request counter that tracks and logs a socket number and a number of times a socket has been accessed such that during playback an order and a socket from which the request was received can be determined; tracking and logging a closure time and a socket number corresponding to a socket and a unique value associated with the socket number whenever the socket is closed; limiting a size of the data collector file by specifying a time limit and a size limit on the data collector file; and deleting the data collector file or moving data collector file to another machine to preserve captured information based on the time limit and the size limit.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the filter is a global filter and the global filter is implemented within the server operating system.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the network data comprises header data and the data collector file comprises a log file that stores header data and a data file that stores any remaining network data.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein captured header data is cached in memory prior to be stored in the log file.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the captured header data is cached until all the header data has been received and then the header data is stored in the log file and any remaining network data is stored in the data file.

11. A method for recording network characteristics of a computer network having a recording server, comprising: using a global filter residing on the recording server to capture requests being received by the recording server, each request being received in several portions such that each portion has a header section containing header and tracking information and a body section containing network data; creating a data collector file that contains a log file, for storing header and tracking information, and a data file, for storing other types of data; caching in memory the header information of each request portions until all headers for that request are received in order to separate the header section of the request portion from the body section of the request portion; determining that all headers have been received; piecing the header information from each portion together to generate the entire header for the request and then writing the header information to the log file once the entire header is received; writing the body section of each of the request portions directly to the data file without being cached; maintaining a global socket counter such that each time a request by a client is made the global socket counter is advanced; keeping track of whether the request is from a new socket or an open socket; maintaining a per socket request counter that tracks and logs a socket number and a number of times a socket has been accessed such that during playback an order and a socket from which the request was received can be determined; tracking and logging a closure time and a socket number corresponding to a socket and a unique value associated with the socket number whenever the socket is closed; limiting a size of the data collector file by specifying a time limit and a size limit on the data collector file; and deleting the data collector file or moving data collector file to another machine to preserve captured information based on the time limit and the size limit; playing back, on a client machine on the computer network, the data collector file and the recorded network characteristics contained therein to a testing server on the computer network.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising searching for a text file that was placed by the global filter to identify a user making multiple requests to the recording server.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the text file is known as a cookie, and wherein the cookie contains a unique value to provide identification for the user.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the unique value is a globally unique identifier (GUID).

15. The method of claim 13 , further comprising storing the unique value in the log file as part of a request.

16. The method of claim 11 , further comprising tracking a server status code for each of the requests.